Rabbit holes, potions that shrink, cakes that make people bigger, caterpillars of wisdom, cruel red queens... These whispering words are listed together to form the strange underground world of childhood memories, "Alice in Wonderland".
The author of the world's most translated works into other languages is Shakespeare, and the second most popular is Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland.
The story of the prince and the princess will fade, and the fairy tales I liked as a child will expose logical loopholes or childishness when I grow up, but only the story of "Alice in Wonderland" is still fascinating even if I watch it as an adult.
Perhaps it is because this fantasy work did not want to explain anything through the story from the beginning. It is more like a parallel world that the author uses imagination, poetry and humor as raw materials to build out of thin air, which is extremely naïve and incomparably strange.
V&A Exhibition "Alice: The More Strange the Weirder"
Since its first printing in 1865, Alice in Wonderland has never stopped printing, and it is an enduring publishing miracle, and the Queen of England, the Beatles, and Wilde are all avid fans of it.
This year, to commemorate this most beloved fairy tale, V&A launched an exhibition titled "Alice: The More Strange the Stranger.". The collection of more than 300 pieces on display includes artwork inspired by the story and historical materials that witnessed the birth of this masterpiece.
It is worth mentioning that V&A also specially invited the famous theater set designer Tom Piper to restore the iconic bizarre scene in "Alice in Wonderland" with high-tech means.
In the crazy tea party, the chairs flew into the sky, and the tablecloths swirled and turned all the way, which was endless; the huge flowers in the garden were intertwined, and there were huge cards of the same size scattered everywhere...
If you can't experience it in person, it doesn't matter, Voicer has collected stories outside of the "Alice in Wonderland" book, so why not just fall into this bottomless rabbit hole with us!
Golden afternoon
Many fairy tales begin a long, long time ago, but Alice in Wonderland begins with a golden afternoon.
Lewis Carroll
The author, Lewis Carroll, whose original name was Charles Dodgson, is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Oxford University. He and his colleague Henry Liddell are close to the family.
On a summer afternoon on July 4, 1862, Lewis Carroll went out with the three young daughters of henry Liddell' family. They paddled small boats up the River Thames.
During the journey, three lively little girls lose patience early and clamor for Lewis Carroll to tell them stories.
Alice and the Dodo
Lewis Carroll is not an extrovert, and has a congenital stuttering, and it is said that the dodo prototype in Alice in Wonderland is the less articulate author himself.
Although not a long-sleeved dancer, Lewis Carroll was a very interesting man, who was proficient not only in logic but also in poetry. Unable to resist the children's pleading, he began to make up a story with Alice, the third-ranked little girl in the Liddell family, as the protagonist.
Alice prototype
The boat traveled all the way, Lewis Carroll's story became more and more exciting, and by the time the ship docked, the three sisters were completely fascinated, and Alice begged him to write down the story he had just told, so that we now read "Alice in Wonderland".
Lewis Carroll wrote the memories of this summer afternoon into poetry as the opening chapter of Alice in Wonderland.
On a golden afternoon, we wandered freely, our delicate arms swinging the oars, and the skills were really unfamiliar.
……
Ah, the merciless three o'clock! So many dream seasons, tell a story that no one dares to breathe, please, a little breath, will alarm the lightest feathers!
After "Alice in Wonderland" became a popular work, some people looked for the meteorological records of that year and found that July 4, 1862 was not a "golden afternoon" at all, and the weather was gloomy, rainy and windy.
But since readers are willing to believe that rabbits will wear vests and pocket watches, and cats will smile with their teeth, what is not to be trusted in a golden afternoon?
Alice in her old age
The original manuscript of Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, was collected as a treasure by Alice herself until the death of her husband in 1928, when Alice had to sell the manuscript to cover the large expenses that came with it.
A source of inspiration for the artist
Dalí's "Falling Down the Rabbit Hole"
In 1961, Duchamp expressed his opinion in a speech entitled "Where We Will Go From Here": Future artists will gain a deeper perspective through the mirror, just like Alice in the Mirror.
He was the first artist to associate the work with the Surrealist school, but apparently would not be the last.
Dalí's illustration of Alice in Wonderland
In 1969, an editor at Random House approached Dalí, an artist who was already famous at the time, and commissioned him to paint an illustration for the upcoming limited edition Alice in Wonderland.
It is hard to imagine that a great artist like Dali would be willing to illustrate a fairy tale, but because this is not another fairy tale, but "Alice in Wonderland" with a strong surreal color, Dalí did not hesitate and gladly accepted the commission.
Indeed, no one is more qualified for this job than he is. In total, Dalí painted 12 Da Nikko prints for the book and signed each limited edition book.
Alice in Wonderland and the surrealist genre originally have similar temperaments, and what seems to outsiders to be close to madness may be just another form of wisdom.
Landscape with Girl Skipping Rope
Below is Dalí's illustration of Alice in Wonderland
Author Lewis Carroll is very good at reorganizing real words to create new vocabulary, and Dalí uses a similar collage in the illustrations.
Dalí chose the image "Girl Who Jumped Rope" that he had created in his previous works, giving Alice the identity. This bizarre image gives a vague impression of being between stillness and movement, sometimes innocent and peaceful, sometimes full of full emotions that seem to rush out of the paper.
Illustration by Yayoi Kusama for Alice in Wonderland
Another artist who has illustrated Alice in Wonderland is unexpected and reasonable, and she is one of the most prestigious artists in the Japanese contemporary art world, Yayoi Kusama.
Yayoi Kusama has suffered from a special eye disease since childhood, the world she sees with her eyes is naturally densely packed with dots, her perspective has a surreal imprint from the beginning, and her reality is the most psychedelic fantasy for ordinary people.
Kusama has always been fascinated by childhood and finds it interesting for adults to observe children, and these two points are at the heart of Alice in Wonderland. Two separate fantasy worlds collide to create an innocent and dangerous universe.
Grace Coddington reveals the story behind the shoot
In order to promote the V&A Alice Show, the authorities invited professionals associated with Alice in Wonderland to tell their stories about Alice, including Grace Coddington, a well-respected fashion editor in the industry.
Natalia Vodianova as Alice
Fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland, which have been repeatedly inspired by the fashion industry, can hardly count the second. Grace Coddington once planned a shoot for VOGUE based on Alice in Wonderland, and also invited a luxurious designer lineup to join.
Jean Paul Gaultier as Cheshire cat
Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour suggested that in addition to having the designers design costumes for the characters in the story, they would also invite the designers to play the roles in the fairy tale themselves.
The idea was exciting, but it took a lot of effort to implement. It took weeks just to discuss who should play what role, and there were even scenes of designers competing for the role.
Christian Lacroix和Stephen Jones
In recreating the scene of the crazy tea party, Christian Lacroix played March Rabbit, and Stephen Jones starred in the mad hatter. I have to say that this candidate is simply exquisite.
Stephen Jones, like the Mad Hatter in the story, is a brilliant hat designer, known for his dramatic designs, and many of the breathtaking hats on the Dior runway during john Galliano were written by him.
Victor&Rolf
Designer & Rolf is a pair of designers who are not brothers but are like brothers, the two have been acting as a group since 1989, and the two designers always bow out in similar clothes every time they close.
In this shoot, they wore their own designed dresses and took on the role of twin fat brothers.
Sexy white rabbit and murderous queen
How can the well-known actors in the circle of designers be absent? Tom Ford offered to play The White Rabbit because he thought the White Rabbit was sexy.
John Galliano, on the other hand, chose the tyrannical Red Queen, a ghost who was addicted to the scene and kept shouting the red queen's classic line: "Cut off her head for me!" ”
Can you find out where Helmut Lang is?
There are designers who love to be in the limelight, and naturally there are designers who are shy by nature, Helmut Lang does not want to appear on camera, and the low-key style is indeed in line with his design style.
Grace Coddington cleverly chose a scene for him that suited him: Alice became as large as a giant after eating the cake, while Helmut Lang next to her was naturally too small to see on one side.
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In Alice in the Mirror, there is a famous dialogue.
Alice didn't believe the White Queen was already one hundred and one years old, five months and one day old. The White Queen said in a sympathetic tone, "You try again: take a deep breath and close your eyes." Alice smiled: "Such an attempt is useless, I will not believe in the impossible." ”
The White Queen said, "That's your lack of practice. When I was your age, I practiced for half an hour every day. Sometimes, I already believe in six impossible things before breakfast. ”
This sentence has now been wonderfully used as an inspirational quote by various Internet celebrities, and has become the meaning of "how big the dream is, how big the stage is". But Lewis Carroll's intentions may not have been so ambitious.
Imagination is our escape from the ropes of the everyday, and adults read fairy tales in order to believe in some impossible things?
Written by - tt